December | 2014 | sseennsseess

Loveronika in the house, she has taken her time to give us all her personal take on senses. A beautiful ride through parts of the Ruhr district, from Essen to Unna.

A personalized trip by Veronika.

On this beautiful sunny day in November I had a free afternoon all of a sudden.

I hadn’t done a walk along the Ruhr in Essen for a while and I finally had the opportunity to test my new camera and to enjoy the beautiful autumn sun.

I have done this walk before, but each time it seems to be different.

It depends on the season, on the sun, the wind, the temperature and also on ones own perception.

Sometimes you don’t need to explore new territories but just walk were you have always been walking and pay attention to what has always been there but now looks different or that you just didn’t realize before.

It is indeed possible to feel your senses just by doing a walk around the corner or by choosing a nice area in your city.

With time on your hand you will be able to pay attention to everything around you in a completely different manner, all the little things that comes across your path and which you normally don’t see when passing in a rush and just trying to get from A to B.

You will find a lot of interesting and beautiful things. Oh and make sure to take photos on your way!

Centre for international light art in Unna, Germany

Enjoy light art in the cellar rooms of a former brewery on 2,500 square meters.

Explore light, art and – your senses!

It is so nice to watch the different light art objects by various artists and really awakes, inspires and even tests your senses. My favorite light object is a whole room full of slowly changing colors on white walls. You cannot tell where the room ends, how big it was and if it had corners or not. Oh and you have to be careful not to run into a wall, using your hands to find out where the room was ending.

German: http://www.lichtkunst-unna.de/

English: http://www.lichtkunst-unna.de/en/start-page.html

Artist info

Name: Veronika

City: Essen

Country: Germany

Profession: Designer, songwriter, musician, hedonist, visionary

Website: www.veronika-caspers.de & www.thecherrypops.com

A short biography: Born in Essen, Germany, Veronika grew up in an industrial area which has been transformed into a green city and also into an international place for art and design. She has studied (and finished) law but found that art, design and music are much more interesting. Apart from designing different websites and print stuff, she loves to see art exhibitions, be inspired by good design, listening to music and write songs herself.

*All rights to the posted images belongs to Veronika Caspers

Proudly presenting this raging masterpiece from everyone’s fave guitar rampager of Dutch band The Stilettos, trust me I’ve seen this guy perform..it’s smoking of passion just like this piece..enjoy coz I did and still do and who knows, he might just return..

The real thing

Tonight I will be attending the dance performance ‘One man without a cause’ of the company ICK Amsterdam. The show is inspired by the famous novel ‘The Stranger’ from the French existentialist philosopher Albert Camus. I am pretty sure that it is going to be a nice night. But at the same time I suspect it is not going to be an easy ride all along. For probably, at one time or another during the evening, good old Plato will be haunting me again. It is always the same: whether it be an exhibition in the field of the visual arts, a dirty and (preferably) sweaty rock ‘n roll-show, or indeed a dance-performance, every now and then I am stalked by that grumpy old Greek, whispering in my ear that this is not the real thing! Visiting the theatre (he will be mumbling again) I am locking myself up in a cave, just like everybody else. Now of course (as The Kinks rightly stressed) I am not like everbody else! So the following thought will doubtlessly creep up tonight, as it always does:

I am up for the real thing!

So what the fuck am I doing here?

Plato thinks he has some very good reasons for haunting me, as he is convinced of the fact that artists – poets, dancers, painters, musicians, the whole lot – necessarily provide third-hand knowledge. That is: as artists in their work make copies of things that are known through sense-experience, and as sense-experience according to Plato does not generate knowledge of real things but only communicates copies of real things, artists in their work merely produce copies of copies of real things.

Art (or any other sensuous experience) lures you away from the real thing.

Period.

The only real things (Plato claims) are the Ideas of these things, that operate in some sort of eternal realm behind our proverbial backs. This eternal realm of Ideas may be ultimately attainable to human beings (that is, according to Plato, by philosophers only), but sure as hell not by attending dance-performances in gritty theatres. Now, Plato of course is a pretentious bastard for trying to spoil my night with some ancient philosophical dogma. So no worries: I will be going anyway. There seem to be at least two good reasons for that. First and foremost I want to avoid a severe quarrel with my girlfriend – she can be pretty nasty at times. Secondly, I think Plato actually only tells part of the story. For I think that the division between the realm of sense and the realm of non-sense (or to state it in a more technical way, between the realm of physics and metaphysics) is not as absolute and impermeable as Plato would have it. As a matter of fact, as opposed to that beardy Greek geek I think that visiting a performance, a concert, or a museum (let alone creating a piece of art oneself!) in fact offers a way to reach the realm of non-sense by way of the senses. It is precisely this thought that I would like to develop in my ensuing contributions to this blog.

For now I have to quit writing, though: my girlfriend is luring me in her cave. That sensuous bitch seems to be up for the real thing.

Henk-Jan Hoekjen

City: Epe
Country: The Netherlands
Profession: Philosopher/Journalist/Musician

A short biography: Currently working as a philosopher on an investigation into Spinoza’s Ethics I profit tremendously from the often very sensual experiences I collected as a guitar player in the European garage rock ‘n roll-underground. Playing for some fifteen years in some of the dirtiest places imaginable in front of some of the most beautiful women ever seen, one easily gets mixed up about the senses: is the ability to sense the greatest gift or the greatest curse? As I said: this question that helps me tremendously in everyday life. For what good is a philosopher when he is not totally mixed up?

This piece is something very different from garage rock ‘n roll, but to me it actually says a lot, as the song in a certain way is about transcending the limits of the senses and entering the realm of non-sense.

Another one (of the infinite examples) that does that particular trick for me: